Oz

The part of our trip titled "New Zealand" has ended and with it our ambition for sightseeing and adventures. All we wanted was to be on the beach, to enjoy the sun and relax. Melbourne is, how should I put it, not exactly the right place for that. So we explored the city for 2 days that included awesome french baguettes (and a funny Frenchman who made them) and headed up to Byron bay. Byron bay is the Mecca of being on the beach, enjoying the sun and relaxing. There is almost nothing else to do there, actually. Of course we couldn't come home from Australia with the answer "no" to the question "did you dive?" so we had a little taste of that. Expensive but definitely worth it. Sand sharks, leopard sharks, giant sea turtles and bull rays (and about 3 trillion other fish that we don't know. They were mostly yellow, but some were blue...). No photos from under the water though. Anyway, since we're not doing much, we're not taking many photos. But here's what our last few days looked like:

I'm sure you're not feeling sorry for us, right? And we just heard that they sell kangaroo meat in the supermarket. Gotta try that one.

Next stop - Sydney. See y'all later.

Last day in New Zealand

It's slowly coming to an end, our trip in New Zealand. Actually the end has been moving really fast. We are both pretty tired from our nearly two months of sightseeing and now we're quite happy to go over the Tasman Sea to do some true vacation.
But first a resume of the last couple of weeks. We left you off in Dunedin, and it's just after that we pick up again.


We left Dunedin on a sunny day heading for Aoraki/Mt Cook inland again. It was beautiful in the valley. What you see here is however not the highest mountain in NZ but some really pretty glaciers . We took a little day walk up to a terminal lake (that is the lake formed from the melting glacier ice) to get a good view of the peak, but this was actually prettier.

After realizing we couldn't realize what to do more in Mt Cook we decided to spend some of our remaining days back in Wanaka. So back we went to the same hostel with the same friendly couch with lake view. We spent three nights there and did some serious relaxing on the beach with ice creams.

A few beers got consumed as well in the sun which didn't hurt at all.


We did however do another day hike up to the face of the Rob Roy Glacier. It was (again) a fantastic day and a good way of spending time.


We even got to do some sun-basking at the top. Happy days!


After Wanaka it was time to slowly head towards the final destination. To shorten the drive we stopped for one night in Lake Tekapo, as the guide book says: "surprisingly located at the lake named Tekapo". Not wanting to climb any more we drove up to an observatory just to take in the views. Tragically nothing really measures up to the Routeburn (see previous post if you've forgotten or missed it) anymore...

Our final stop was Banks Peninsula right outside Christchurch where we stayed a couple of nights in the most charming of places, Le Bons Bay. We got to do the most price worthy boat trip so far with the owner of the hostel where we saw heaps of Hectors dolphins, baby seals and even two penguins. It was a gorgeous day and a great experience. Kept us happy for a very long time.

Even though the beach in Le Bons Bay was close to perfect the water earned a "shit-the-Pacific-is-cold"-dance, and there was no swimming happening that day.


Last but not at all least we stayed in Onuku Farm Hostel, a place that served us superb views, great company (a guy from Jersey - a semi independent country neither one of us had ever heard about! Talk about learning new things!) and a scorching sun.

That was the last evening on Banks P. and now we're back in Chch for some last minute shopping before the flight to Oz takes off tonight. It's getting fall here and the nights are colder, so it feels like a good time to take off for some heat again.
It's been great, and it still is. New Zealand is a recommendation to almost anyone and there is still no good reason not to move here, except the far away part. We're both dying to pump you all full of stories (knowing some of us they might come up several times), to share what we can and just try to explain the rest.
Beware all you listeners: we're coming home soon!

Touchdown

Yep, we made it to the most southern point in our trip, and the most southern point in New Zealand (if you don't count Stewart Island, and that's ok, nobody counts Stewart Island)

So, "how was it?" you may ask. The answer would have to be "Windy. Very very windy."

That, more or less, concluded a few days of bad weather. (we knew it had to come at one point ore another) Still, we insist on showing off with the spectacular thing we've seen. That's how we are, delivering the goods in sun and in rain, in wind and... when there's no wind...

Lake Manapuri, considered by many to be the most beautiful in Kiwiland, marked the beginning of the bad weather. It only made it look more dramatic...

Doubtful Sound, considered as the most beautiful fiord in NZ (noticed the repeating superlatives? it's not us, the damn Kiwis are brainwashing us) was very hard to get to, very expensive to get to and justified its reputation for having up to 8 meters of rain per year. It's a shame we can't show you the flying dolphins though...

 

Milford sound is a more accessible, more visited, and more commercialized fiord. We only got there with a car, you know, just to make sure the weather is as bad there too.

 

To whomever it actually means anything, it appears that the place does actually exist. Swashbuckling, isn't it?!!!

The Catlins is the south coast region of NZ. We heard it's very beautiful, and we believe it is, when it's not rainy/foggy/dark. We can only assume. But we saw a penguin climbing ashore and a few meters high waves crashing on the rocks.

The Otago Peninsula, just outside of Dunedin (where we are now). In this picture you ca see a rare creature the mysterious Kajsa Kurtenius doing the "let's stomp the penguins" dance. Fortunately for the little penguins they managed to hide very well and therefore were not stomped. Or seen...

And this is Bettie, our recent Fur Seal acquaintance. Look how close we got! And it wasn't even  a part of a guided tour! Miracles do happen!

Thanks for all you comment writers, we are now certain that at least 3 people check our blog!

The Routeburn Track

Loosing track of time here all I know is that it's not enough. There are so many things we want to see and do and just so little time (oh, and did we mention that it all costs a fortune or two?!).

Having your complete attention we'd like to apologize to anyone and everyone who's been trying to reach us and failed, but as you can see from the pictures below we're pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so reception for the phone is just a vague hallucination on the horizon.
So, this is going to be mainly about our latest adventure: The Routeburn Track, listed by National Geographic as one of the 11 best tracks of the world. It truly was.

We started out from Kinloch, a small place consisting only of the hostel where we stayed with its adjacent restaurant. The weather wasn't very promising for two days prior to our take off, but we decided to be brave. Even in fog the place was magical.

The first day (of four, three nights in the bush) gave us a bit of a drizzle as we made our way up the mountain to the first hut. But as already said: even in fog and low clouds... The river is the Route Burn, once the easiest way to cross the mountains of Fiordland to the Tasman Sea.

No kidding it's loose - anyone could see that!

As a matter of fact there were quite a few places where we crossed earlier landslides, and given the wet weather we occasionally threw a wary eye up the slopes next to us.

After only three hours hiking we reached the first hut at the Routeburn Falls. We avoided the heaviest rain that fell after we were safe indoor. A good warm up for coming days.

Day two started cold, but with a clear blue sky above, and we continued our climb up towards Harris Saddle. In a region with 220 rainy days per year we considered ourselves lucky to get to climb the Southern Alps in such a fantastic sunshine.

At the saddle we took a little side trip up Conical hill, and given it was a day just after rain we had the clearest view possible - we could see all the way to the sea. Roi is here forming his own version of Lord of the Rings with the correct snowy mountains in the background, the Darrans.

Defying my fear of heights I too stepped close to the edge to get a good picture of the Hollyford valley stretching towards the Tasman Sea. Whatever climb we had done, and whatever weather these grand mountains might throw at us later, it was all worth it for these views. The track contains the most beautiful views I have ever seen, not exaggerating, and I find it heartbreaking to not be able to just print them on the inside of my eyelids for the future.

Third day, likewise, started cold, with frost covering the ground around McKenzie hut. We had a long day ahead so we started early, heading for Howden at the end of the Routeburn Track, and then on to Upper Caples hut on the Track with the same name. Connecting these two tracks gave us the opportunity to go in a loop and get back to Kinloch and our car.

In between this picture (which is the fantastic beech forest that most of the Caples Track stayed in) and the one above we had one of the hardest tracks ever. It was a 500 metre ascent up an almost vertical wall (might be slightly exaggerated) covered in rainforest with hysterical slippery roots. We literally used our whole body to climb, pull, push, crawl, swing and drag ourselves with backpacks up this slope to McKellar Saddle. Not being as popular as the Routeburn it was also not as taken care of, and therefore much harder. At the hut we were devastated from sore feet, knees, thighs and hunger. But we made it. The last day was harsh since we had residues of the previous tiredness, but nothing that a shower, a meal at the restaurant (I had lamb rump steak, Roi venison filet) and a Laphroaig couldn't cure.

Today we are resting our poor legs. We've driven from Kinloch, via Queenstown and the best hamburger in the world (it's a lot of superlatives today), to Te Anau and Manapouri where we're staying for two nights. The day is as pretty as can be and the only bad thing is that my feet are a nightmare after having served at least 200 sandflies a feast the last night on the tracks... But we're dealing with them too. We are after all, as a woman in a visitor centre put it, "swedish machines that can take anything".

And hey, by the way, we do appreciate any proof that you guys are actually reading this, so please give us more comments!

Lots of love!